Markus Schrenk
What constitutes racism, antisemitism, sexism, classism, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, and similar forms of discrimination? This talk aims to engage with the intricate definitional challenges that arise in the context of various group-based forms of discrimination.
The focus is not on moral questions (e.g., What kind of harm does group-based discrimination entail?), political questions (e.g., How can these harms be effectively combated?), or questions regarding our academia (e.g., How can the university become more inclusive?). Instead, the objective is to specifically examine issues related to definitions and the associated meta-philosophical inquiries.
This holds particular relevance beyond the academic sphere: in public discourse, it is common for individuals to be labelled as ‘x-ists’ or phenomena to be deemed ‘x-istic,’ often resulting in disagreements about these categorisations. In fact, many public controversies revolve around the categorisation itself. It is important to address the meta-question of how to reasonably draw the boundaries between what is considered ‘x-ims’ and what is not.
Short bio
Professor Markus Schrenk, DPhil, holds the position of Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. His scholarly pursuits encompass a wide range of philosophical disciplines, including metaphysics, particularly the metaphysics of the natural sciences (laws of nature, dispositions, causality, and modality), the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language. Notably, his most recent research endeavour focusses on a topic within the realm of the philosophy of art: the nature of proprioceptive art. In conjunction with his public philosophy project, denXte, he and his team were recipients of Germany’s highest endowed science communication award in 2022, the Communicator Award jointly bestowed upon them by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Stifterverband. Currently, Professor Schrenk serves as the president of the Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP) in German-speaking countries, in collaboration with Elke Brendel.